Moeen rebuffed plea from England coach McCullum to tour India

Moeen Ali rebuffed plea from England coach Brendon McCullum to drop his Test retirement plans and tour India – with all-rounder insisting: ‘I’m done’

• Moeen Ali has confirmed his retirement from Test cricket for second time
• Coach Brendon McCullum tried to persuade him to continue his Test career 
• The 36-year-old finished with more than 3,000 Test runs and over 200 wickets 

England have made one last attempt to talk Moeen Ali into continuing on their Test journey but this time, he insists, his word is final. There will be no coming back now.

Brendon McCullum approached Moeen while he was sitting in the Oval pavilion during the final Test with what turned out to be an injury to an adductor muscle in his hip and asked him if he would join England in India for their five-Test series starting in late January.

But the coach anticipated what the answer would be. ‘There’s no way I’m going to India,’ said Moeen after playing his part on the final day of the fifth Test by defying that injury to take three Australian wickets. ‘That’s me done. It’s nice to finish like this.

‘They knew from the start of the Ashes that this would be it,’ added Moeen, who had already told Mail Sport before the final Test of his insistence that his emergency comeback for the biggest Test series of them all would be a one-off.

‘Baz asked me again when I had my day off at the Oval on the second day. I said no. Test cricket is the best cricket. I wish I could rewind time. But, even though my Test career has been a bit up and down, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve loved it.’

England all-rounder Moeen Ali has confirmed his retirement from Test cricket for second time

Moeen (left) exited the field with fellow retiree Stuart Broad (right) after the final Ashes Test

It is the correct call and not because Moeen has lucrative T20 franchise contracts in South Africa and Abu Dhabi when England embark on one of the toughest assignments of them all in India. He was right to come back when Jack Leach was injured but he is right, at 36, to walk off into the sunset with Stuart Broad at the Oval in a perfect Test finale. He is going out at the very top.

‘I was a little bit embarrassed to be walking off with a great actually,’ said Moeen. ‘It shows what a man Broady is. I didn’t want to do it but he said I had to. I was really reluctant but it was great. You have mates and build relationships and he’s always been amazing with me.’

Moeen has no need to be embarrassed. He earned the right to walk off with Broad after England had won by 49-runs to square an Ashes series for the ages.

He finishes with the all-rounder’s double of more than 3,000 Test runs and over 200 wickets and could have achieved so much more had he not paid a price for his versatility and selflessness by being mucked around by previous England regimes.

Certainly Moeen looked like the new David Gower, elegance personified, when he made the first of his five Test hundreds against Sri Lanka at Headingley in 2014. But England needed a spinner after Graeme Swann’s retirement and Moeen was always better at spin bowling than he ever realised.

‘The bowling was always a fight,’ revealed Moeen, who was surprised to learn he finishes with a better fourth innings record than Swann and even Shane Warne. ‘But I have always loved the last innings, day five, when it’s spinning. That’s when I’ve always bowled my best.’

Even his batting in a series when he volunteered at Headingley to bat at three when he saw Harry Brook was struggling there surprised him.

‘I wouldn’t say I proved anything to myself when I went to three but when I played a few nice shots I thought ‘I can still bat’. You forget sometimes when you’re at seven or eight. I would have loved to have scored more runs in this series but it was a great challenge.

The 36-year-old finished his career with more than 3,000 Test runs and over 200 wickets

‘White ball cricket is great and I love the leagues but there is nothing better than playing against the best attack in the world with a new ball in their hand. It was decent.’

Now he will both play, fitness permitting, in the Hundred for Birmingham and commentate for the BBC, an agreement he had for the Ashes before it was interrupted by his Test comeback, knowing he would have regretted not answering Stokes simple test message of ‘Ashes?’ in the affirmative. At least after he realised the England captain wasn’t joking.

‘Apparently this injury settles down quickly,’ Moeen added. ‘It was really sore on the last day at the Oval and it crossed my mind I wouldn’t be able to bowl but I knew it was my last day in Test cricket.

‘I would have regretted it later in life if I’d said no to that text. It was quite daunting to come back because I’d never done well against Australia but I had nothing to lose. It was a free hit. I still don’t believe I’ve done that well against Australia but it was great to finish like this. Things happen for a reason and this was meant to be.’

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